easter weekend.

^^^Easter Bunny poop

We had such a good Easter this year--Franz's first!--with two big dinners and two Easter egg hunts: one at my parents' house and the other at Zac's parents'. 

Saturday we drove up to my parents' and ate a dinner of ham and potatoes, went on the most elaborate Easter egg hunt (with eggs scattered around the perimeter of the entire house), where Aiden shook every egg he picked up to make sure there was something inside, and ate carrot cake made by yours truly for dessert! My belly was pretty happy that night. 

And on Sunday, Franz played with ate his toys that the Easter Bunny got him, and we had a turkey dinner with the Swensons, went on another Easter egg hunt there, where we lost one egg filled with ten dollars to the garden (seriously, no one could find it, and we spent about an hour looking for it), and then Zac and I taught the FHE lesson. 

Having Franz with us to enjoy the holidays this year (and the last part of last year) has been so much fun. Even though he's tiny and doesn't react much to the things we do, I just love starting our own holiday traditions with this little family of mine. And I am sitting on the edge of my seat waiting for next year when he'll be a little bigger and little more excited about things! :)

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thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving this year was spent up in the mountains with my family. Zac, Franz, and I slept over the night before so we could get up more easily for breakfast early in the morning at our usual spot: Village Inn. And that Franzy boy of ours slept 5 hours straight that night, and hasn't since. It was nice while it lasted.

After breakfast, we went went to the movie theater and saw Frozen. It was hilarious! And Franz slept through almost the whole thing, and when he wasn't sleeping, he was either eating or staring at the movie screen. 

The rest of the day was spent making the last of the food, holding my baby boy while Zac played video games with Daniel, and eating a Thanksgiving feast with  grandparents and my aunt Marsha, her fiancee, and their two kids. It was a full house, but it always is these days.

And who knew that taking pictures with a baby is the hardest thing ever?! Happy Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas! 

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we've been eating like kings lately.

Last weekend Zac took me on a fancy date to Goodwood, since we haven't been to a sit-down restaurant by ourselves for months and months. We don't eat out too often, and when we do, we go to places like Cafe Rio and Noodles and Co., because I hate paying tips. But since we hadn't been on a date for a while, and because we had no food in our house (we hadn't been grocery shopping for something like 4 weeks), we decided to treat ourselves to some good BBQ (ribs and chicken crispers!) and talk, because our baby is coming soon, and simple things like date nights will be so hard when it does.

Monday was a hard one for us, so after work, we drove up State Street to The Purple Turtle and ordered an entire tray of burgers, fries and tater tots, and a couple of drinks for dinner. It. was. so. much. food. But those tater tots have my heart, and I'll be back just for those. We laughed at the funny paintings of turtles on the wall, and ate until Zac had to practically lift me into and out of the car. It was a funny sight. This belly of mine is getting huge. It was the perfect way to cheer the both of us up.

The next day, on October 1st, to kick off my favorite season and favorite month, we had Erica and Wes over for some apple slices with homemade caramel sauce, pumpkin donuts, and apple cider. Zac had the genius idea of dipping his donut into the caramel sauce, and if that isn't my new favorite autumn treat, I don't know what is! Cripes, that was delicious! After our feast of desserts, we watched The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with Ichabod Crane. I like that movie. That Ichabod is a funny guy with a funny nose. I think we'll start doing this every October 1st.

And now that it's October, I can finally say that my baby will be born next month! And that just makes my head spin.

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gingerbread houses.

Last Sunday, the day before Christmas Eve, my family held a graham cracker gingerbread house making contest. We had 45 minutes to make the best house we could, and guess who won! Not me! My dad and my old geezer of a grandpa, that's who! 

We had so much fun, and I ate way too much candy. Sara's house got the pity award, and Aiden's house got the sexy award. Mine and Zac's house was left unfinished. I love my family.

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christmas day.

Christmas was yesterday, and it was awesome. We slept in (I know, I know: "Just wait until you have kids"), and opened presents together later in the morning. We had fun with that one, and even made a video. We each got each other a few surprise presents that you'll see in the video if you look really closely. :) After presents, we had a breakfast of gingerbread waffles with honey and raspberries. I think I'll make those again!

Later in the day, we drove up to my parents' house and spent time with my entire family. Two parents, three sisters, three brothers, two (almost three!) sisters-in-law, one brother-in-law, three nephews, one niece, two grandmas, one grandpa, one friend, and a husband. Needless to say, it was a full house, with never a quiet moment. 

We ate some good food, including a ham dinner with potato soup, and opened presents together. We even watched Christmas Oranges with my grandmas. And then, when the house quieted down a little, we drove the long drive home and fell asleep with our faces really close together, talking about how good that day was.

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christmas eve.

We spent Christmas Eve a little differently than last year. We started off the day with breakfast at Village Inn, since Zac's been wanting their breakfast for weeks now. We shopped for last-minute gifts, drove home in a blizzard, wrapped the last of the presents, and made some gingerbread cookies. 

I told Zac that I think it would be fun to start a tradition where we do some kind of service on Christmas Eve with our future family. Later, as the snow was coming down, Zac put his coat on, walked out the door, and shoveled the walkway to our apartment. He's so dreamy.

That night, we hung out with the Swenson's and ate a ton of good food. Lyle even took us for a ride around the pond in the Polaris to see the lights. It was so cold, and a man in a t-shirt and shorts offered to take a picture of the two of us. 

We came home late and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas on the iPad until we fell asleep.

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